Snowshoeing becoming increasingly popular in Alberta

If you’ve taken up the recreational activity of snowshoeing, you’re not alone.

Travis Hoff, who works at Sports Rent in Calgary, says the sport has been on a steady rise for the last five years with demand spiking this year.

"There is definitely increasing demand," Hoff says, adding he’s renting out hundreds of snowshoes every day. "We have a lot of regulars that come, but we also have a lot of people trying it out, but they typically enjoy it, so they usually come back."

Shelley Mcinnis was in Kananaskis Country this past weekend trying it out for the first time.

"It's just great to be out in the mountains enjoying a nice day," Mcinnis says.

Tonny Gee is one of many people who have met up with people online to snowshoe.

"I think it is growing," Gee says. "One of the feedbacks we had from members is that they wanted to do snowshoeing, but they didn't see a lot of groups heading out."

Tara Israelson says it’s easy and quite affordable.

"Anyone can do it — if you can walk you can snowshoe, so you can get into great terrain see beautiful things and get some fresh air," Israelson says. "And it's really easy, and not that expensive to get into either."

On average, it costs about $10 for a rental about $150 to buy your own pair of snowshoes.

Some people who rent out snowshoes say the popularity of the sport is growing. (CBC)